Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Review

A classic Dr. Seuss tale has once again found its way onto the big screen. It goes without saying that Dr. Seuss is one of the best and most iconic children's book authors, if not the best. What makes his work so incredible is that his stories are so memorable and fun for kids, but they also teach very important lessons. As an adult, I've often been a bit awestruck returning to these stories as I've discovered not-so-hidden messages that are super relevant to society and often extremely political. It's obvious that Dr. Seuss desired to leave a real impact on kids' lives rather than simply leaving them with meaningless, fun stories. That's why millions of parents for generations upon generations have gravitated towards his stories and used them to teach and raise their own kids. In regards to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," the message is pure and simple. Despite the hustle and bustle surrounding the holiday, it's not the toys and presents that make Christmas what it is. That's a very important message to teach kids because when they're super young, they don't know any better. Christmas means toys, presents, Santa and fun. That's why I think this story should be a staple for every family during the holidays so that kids can learn from a young age what Christmas truly means.

That said, the main focus of this review will, of course, be on Illumination's latest adaptation of Dr. Seuss' story. But I do think some background here is important so you know where I'm coming from, thus I feel it's important to talk about the two previous adaptations before diving right into Illumination's movie. Obviously the most pure adaptation of the book, which was released by Dr. Seuss in 1957, is the 1966 T.V. special. This short, 26-minute version is the purest form because it's essentially Boris Karloff reading Dr. Seuss' book with some animation being added. To get it to the full 30-minute T.V. slot, they added a few songs ("Welcome Christmas," "Trim up the Tree" and "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch") as well as some extended animated sequences without dialogue. This version is perhaps the most effective adaptation because it's pretty much the same as reading the book to your kids, but they have some really good visuals to go along with it as well as some fun music, especially "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" as Thurl Ravenscroft's deep voice makes that a Christmas classic. Plus, the short length means that their attention span isn't going to run out and they can get the full impact of the story without having to spend too much time on it.

In regards to the live-action Jim Carrey adaptation in 2000, this is a movie that I wanted to do a retro review on because I find it to be absolutely phenomenal. Does the story of the Grinch need to be stretched out to 90 minutes to cash in on the popularity of the source material? Perhaps not. The book and the 1966 T.V. do just fine on their own. But if you're going to take a short story and adapt it into a movie, this is how. Not only did director Ron Howard transform this story into a hilarious comedy that very much has the exaggerated, comical, Dr. Seussian flavor to it, with a huge portion of said comedy coming from perhaps my personal favorite Jim Carrey performance, but the movie has a stunning amount of heart and depth to it that I think Dr. Seuss himself would've been proud of. We get to see how the Grinch was bullied and pushed away by his classmates when he was young for looking different than others. We get to see the adorable, innocent Cindy Lou Who make a real effort to reach out to the Grinch as she sees signs of him perhaps being not as awful as advertised. In addition, young Cindy Lou Who is trying to discover the meaning of Christmas herself, giving us the great song "Where Are You, Christmas?"

Adding that depth to the movie enhances the power of the story and we get real drama as the Mayor is trying his hardest to fight young Cindy Lou Who by keeping Whoville Grinchless. And he almost succeeds by purposely triggering some bad memories from the Grinch's childhood to push him away. I like the idea that this specific incident is what leads the Grinch to terrorize Whoville that night by stealing all of their decorations, which he thinks is going to ruin Christmas as he thinks all they care about the commercialism of the holiday. Then when they wake up in the morning, the Mayor confronts Cindy Lou Who and her family, trying to instill a strong feeling of guilt on the poor, little girl. But the power of the movie comes when Cindy's dad comes to her defense and teaches the town that his family is all he needs to have a good Christmas. That's what causes the whole city to then sing "Welcome Christmas" from the original T.V. special, which is what the Grinch hears from the mountain, causing him to realize that he's failed and feel truly guilty about what he's done. It's a hilarious, quotable and powerful film that I remember seeing in theaters and have watched just about every year since. It's on Netflix right now if you want to go give it another try.

Now we get to dive into Illumination's 2018 adaptation, a movie I was never excited about. I hated the idea when it was announced a few years back and I thought all of the trailers looked incredibly stupid. Combine that with the fact that I have a very spotty record when it comes to my enjoyment of Illumination's movies and I had every right to believe that this movie was going to be trash. And I was right. Yes, there's a few good elements scattered throughout the movie. But none of the elements that made the previous two versions so great are here in this movie. Young kids might be mildly entertained by the final result as the big focus is the childish slapstick humor and gags that you saw littered in the trailers. But the movie struggles mightily to figure out how to get to 86 minutes and also lacks the depth that a Grinch movie should have, thus the final result is an ultimately pointless venture done solely because Illumination wanted a quick cash grab given that they knew people would show up to a Grinch movie during Christmas, especially since it's been 18 years since the Jim Carrey version and 52 years since the T.V. special. Smart move on their part financially, but if you're looking for a quality movie to take your family to, I'd say skip this one.

Let's focus a bit on plot here. Yes, everyone knows the story of the Grinch. There's nothing to spoil here. The Grinch hates Christmas. He decides to steal all of their toys and decorations on Christmas Eve, but yet when they wake up, he hears them singing and realizes his plan has failed. His heart grows three sizes and he makes restitution and tries to become part of the community. But how to expand that? As I've explained, the Jim Carrey movie did an excellent job at expanding the story. This Illumination movie does not. There's absolutely no drama in Whoville. In fact, the number of characters from Whoville who even get major dialogue can probably be counted on your two hands. Our main character is Cindy Lou Who and she spends a good chunk of time scheming with her friends as to how to trap Santa Claus because she wants to talk to him about her mother. On the Grinch's side of things, once he decides to steal Christmas, the movie spends a huge chunk of time on his preparation. That's how we get to 86 minutes. Cindy Lou Who scheming to trap Santa Claus and the Grinch preparing to steal Christmas. It was quite frankly boring and drama free. I don't think I laughed even once.

I think the best compliment I can give to the movie is that the animation looked good. The design of Whoville was fantastic and all the inner workings of the city were well planned out. That's pretty much it. A lot of time was spent on the animation. Almost no time was spent on drafting a competent story. I don't even think the voice work was that good. I love Benedict Cumberbatch, but I don't think his voice was a very convincing Grinch. Our narrator was Pharrell Williams. While he wasn't particularly awful, when compared to the likes of Boris Karloff and Anthony Hopkins, he felt extremely weak when giving his narration. The music is also been a fun part of the previous movies. And the only good song was "Welcome Christmas," which they brought in from the T.V. special without changing much. That's it. The rest of the music is done by Tyler the Creator and his version of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" is quite frankly terrible. And included at the beginning of the movie instead of when he's scheming to steal Christmas. He also has a few original songs that made me want to gag. I think this choice was made so that Illumination could feel relevant with how popular hip-hop is today, but for me it did not work at all, which shouldn't surprise you.

So yeah, the voice work was off. The humor was such that would entertain a young child, but not an adult. At 86-minutes, the movie felt like a slog because the writers had no idea how to expand the story and thus settled by spending way too much time on two story arcs that were ultimately pointless or could've been done in five minutes. There was no drama in the film. Hardly any life. The Grinch wasn't even very Grinchy, just mostly lonely and bored. Yes, the movie does try to pull at your heartstrings by giving the classic Grinch themes, but the way they ended this movie actually felt more forced and awkward. While I've already complained Tyler the Creator's soundtrack, I was shocked at the end credits to learn that Danny Elfman did the actual score because the score didn't stand out at all. Thus I'm left with saying that the animation was done well and the design of this land was done with care. But given that we're in 2018, that should be a given with any major animation company. The movie isn't particularly offensive, but it's just lifeless and boring. Yes, you can take your kids and they'll probably enjoy it. Or you can save your money for "Ralph Breaks the Internet" instead. Or stay home and watch one of the other two versions. My grade for this Grinch is a 5/10.